Business survey 2015

We invited local businesses and startups to take part in consultations to help inform future services.

Purpose

Just like many businesses, we need to understand the needs and challenges of our customers so we can ensure we’re addressing the right issues. To do this, we occasionally carry out business surveys.

In August 2015, through independent partners, DJS Research, we surveyed 450 businesses by phone to ask about doing business in Richmond.

Headline results

The overarching picture is that businesses appreciate the benefits of being here, with a high level of recent and expected growth and low skills gaps. There are of course challenges, which for some are limiting their growth. Here are some key headlines:

Benefits and challenges

Businesses identified some key advantages of doing business in the borough:

• Access to customers and markets (35%)
• Transport links and ease of commuting (17% - higher for larger businesses)
• Attractive environment (18%)

Almost one quarter of respondents refer to the convenience of living close to their place of work.

44% of respondents said there were no disadvantages of doing business in the borough. 14% of businesses said congestion and parking was a problem, with 13% referring to the costs of doing business as a disadvantage.

Business growth

• Almost one-third of respondents reported growth in turnover over the last year, and a quarter reported growth in staff. Businesses most likely to report growth are those operating for five or more years, and businesses in Twickenham.
• 66% of respondents are planning to grow in the next 2-3 years, especially those in creative sectors, catering and accommodation services, and those with ten or more employees. This compares favourably to London’s Business Survey, which reported 63% planning to grow.

We asked businesses about barriers to growth. Top responses included:

• Competition (37%)
• Lack of demand (20%)
• Cash flow (15%)
• Resources / finance (10%)
• Lack of suitably fast broadband (15%)

Over a fifth of businesses claim that finding the right premises has been difficult.

Relatively few businesses report skills gaps (15%), although where gaps are reported, they are most likely to be in ICT and also administrative skills. 25% of respondents reported recruitment difficulties, particularly of staff with adequate experience.

Business support and employee health

There is some good awareness of the availability of support for businesses, particularly of the Chamber of Commerce, local town centre and traders associations, Job Centre plus and BestOf Richmond. Over half of respondents say they would like to receive more information about support to help them.

The most common areas businesses would like support in are:

• Promoting to residents (47%)
• Marketing and sales (37%)
• Doing business online (34%)
• Complying with legislation or Trading Standards (26%)

Skills and apprenticeships, finance, business planning, legal issues, energy efficiency and finding premises also featured strongly. Two-thirds of respondents said that the health of their employees impacts on their business. One-quarter of respondents would like support for this.

Read the 2015 Business Survey(pdf, 1475KB) report in full.